The Apple Watch is now one of the most common running watches at any start line. Most people did not buy it for running. They bought it for notifications and health tracking, then found that it records a GPS run perfectly well. The real question is which app to run with. Apple's own Workout app has become far more capable over the last few years, and the third-party field has shifted too: Strava bought the coaching app Runna in 2025, and a handful of one-time-purchase apps now cover ground that used to need a subscription.
This guide compares six options on what matters during a run and after it: what the watch shows you, whether you can leave the phone at home, what is free, what costs money, and whether you can take your data with you.
A running app lives or dies on a screen you glance at for half a second while breathing hard. Before looking at individual apps, it helps to agree on what good looks like:
The built-in Workout app is the baseline every other app has to beat, and it is a high one. It is free, it starts instantly, and it records your GPS route, pace, heart rate, cadence and elevation. Workout views are customisable: you choose which metrics appear and can add views for heart-rate zones, elevation, running power and, on recent models, running form metrics such as stride length, ground contact time and vertical oscillation. Custom workouts let you build warm-up, interval and recovery blocks, and the pacer and Race Route features help with target pace and routes you run often.
Recent versions of watchOS also added a Training Load view, which compares the effort of your last seven days with your longer-term baseline. Everything is stored in Apple Health, on your own devices, and in your iCloud account if you have Health sync turned on.
The gaps are in analysis and portability rather than recording. There is no social layer, route planning is limited, and Apple offers no direct GPX or FIT export, so moving runs elsewhere needs a third-party tool. For many runners, though, the Workout app is genuinely all they need.
Strava is the social network of running and cycling, and nothing else comes close to its community: the activity feed, kudos, clubs, segments and leaderboards. Its Apple Watch app records runs without the phone and shows the essentials -- pace, distance, time and heart rate. Most of what makes Strava distinctive happens once the activity reaches the phone or the web.
The free tier covers recording and the social feed. Segment leaderboards, deeper analysis and route tools need the subscription, which costs $11.99 a month or $79.99 a year in the US (prices vary by country). Beacon, Strava's live location sharing, is free from the phone app but remains a paid feature when you record from a watch. In April 2025 Strava acquired Runna, and a combined Strava + Runna plan now costs $149.99 a year in the US.
Choose Strava for the people rather than the watch screen. Plenty of runners record with a different app and let it upload to Strava, so they keep the social side without changing how they record.
Runna is a coaching app first. You give it a goal -- a first 5K, a marathon time, a comeback after a break -- and it builds a structured plan that adapts as you go, with sessions sent to the watch so intervals and target paces are guided on your wrist. It supports the Apple Watch alongside several other watch brands.
It is priced like personal coaching rather than a tracker: about $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year in the US. If a plan is what gets you out of the door, that can be good value. If you mainly want to record and review your runs, you would be paying for something you will not use.
Nike Run Club is still free, and its best feature has survived every redesign: Guided Runs. There are around 300 audio sessions, from easy recovery jogs to race-day simulations, voiced by coaches and athletes, and you can start them from the Apple Watch and listen through AirPods.
The watch display itself is simple and offers little customisation, and data export is limited, so moving years of history out later is awkward. For motivation, and for beginners in particular, it remains one of the best free options available.
WorkOutDoors is the power user's choice and a long-standing favourite with trail runners and hikers. It is a one-time purchase of $8.99 and turns the watch into something close to a dedicated outdoor computer: more than 800 data fields, as many configurable screens as you want, vector and topographic maps on the wrist that can be stored for offline use, and navigation along planned routes.
The trade-off is complexity. Setting it up properly takes a while, and its strength is the watch itself rather than long-term training analysis on the phone. If you want maps and total control on your wrist, nothing else in this list comes close.
PaceGrid is our own app, so read this section with that in mind. We have tried to be as plain about its limits as we have been about everyone else's.
PaceGrid records runs, rides, walks and hikes from the Apple Watch without the iPhone, and it can record pool swims on the watch too. The watch screen is deliberately simple: time, distance, pace or speed, and heart rate, in a fixed layout. You cannot customise it, there are no maps on the wrist, and there is no watch-face complication. Where it differs is Injury Guard, which taps your wrist during a workout when something looks off: heart rate above your ceiling, heart rate drifting upward, a pace that is fading, a session running past your duration limit, a hydration reminder and, if you switch them on, heat alerts.
After the run, the iPhone adds splits, personal records and matched routes, and the Training tab shows training load and recovery estimates, heart-rate zones and training plans. The iPhone app also handles saved routes, offline maps, Bluetooth heart-rate straps and compatible smart rings. You can export GPX and FIT files, import GPX, FIT and TCX files (including a zipped Strava export), and optionally upload finished workouts to Strava automatically or save them to Apple Health.
There is no PaceGrid account, and your workouts are stored on your device. Pricing is simple: everything is free for seven days, recording stays free after that, and one purchase with no subscription unlocks the full app, including your history, the training analytics and the Apple Watch app.
| App | Phone-free recording | Customisable watch screens | Stand-out strength | Price model | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Workout | Yes | Yes | Free, deep integration, running form metrics | Free | No direct GPX/FIT (third-party tools) |
| Strava | Yes | Limited | Social feed, segments, clubs | Free tier / $11.99 a month | GPX per activity |
| Runna | Yes | Guided plan sessions | Adaptive coaching plans | About $19.99 a month | Via connected apps |
| Nike Run Club | Yes | Minimal | Audio Guided Runs | Free | Limited |
| WorkOutDoors | Yes | Extensive (800+ fields) | Maps and navigation on the wrist | $8.99 one-time | Via Apple Health |
| PaceGrid | Yes | No (fixed layout) | Live Injury Guard alerts, training load on iPhone | Free recording, one-time unlock | GPX and FIT |
Training load is a simple idea: compare what you have done recently with what your body is used to, and treat sudden jumps with respect. (Our guide to training load and injury risk covers the research and its limits.) Almost every serious app now calculates something like it. Far fewer put it where you can act on it.
GPS tracks reveal where you live, where you work and when you are usually out. Before you choose, it is worth knowing where each app keeps them:
Many runners combine two apps: one to record and analyse, and Strava's free tier for the social side. That setup costs little or nothing and keeps a copy of every run somewhere you control. If price is your main concern, our guide to running apps that don't charge monthly goes further.